Abstract
Eugenol, the main component of clove oil, has been proposed as an alternative fish anesthetic with no apparent toxic effects to people and environment. In addition, anesthesia may reduce stress and risk of trauma to fish during handling. Therefore, the use of anesthetics may reduce fish mortality. However, studies are required on short-term exposures to eugenol to assure the target animal safety of this product. The present work reports evaluation of biochemical responses of Nile tilapia to handling with concurrent two environmental concentrations of eugenol. Based on the results of this study, eugenol appears to be a safe anesthetic for use in this species.
Highlights
The benefits of reducing the handling stress through the use of anesthetics are controversial (Walsh and Pease, 2002)
Lower concentrations of lactate were observed in handled fish exposed to eugenol for light anesthesia (T3)
Total plasma ammonia concentrations were elevated after all handling treatments, but the basal levels were recovered 6 hours after the stress (Figure 4)
Summary
The benefits of reducing the handling stress through the use of anesthetics are controversial (Walsh and Pease, 2002). The experimental design included 4 treatments with 3 replications each (sub-groups) to perform handling stress plus the anesthetic effect of eugenol. The fish plus anesthesia group (T3) was subjected to the same treatment of handling (T2), except by 20 mg L-1 of eugenol which was added to the glass aquaria. Fish from the control group (T1-not subjected to neither handling nor eugenol) were only quickly sampled with a dip-net at the time 0 and 6 hours followed the same procedure for T2, T3 and T4.
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